May 2010. Stephanie died peacefully on 19th April after a short stay in hospital. She had been suffering from acute cervical cancer. Fred will continue to run the business to the best of his ability. The web site is slowly getting under control again
as he tries to take over some of Stephanie's responsibilities, and learns some of the mysteries of Dreamweaver.

As we are a
UK-based business, I decided it is time I took a quick
look at some British cameras.

One of my
favourites is the Ilford
Advocate, which has a
distinctive ivory (now nearly always faded to cream)
enamelled finish on a diecast aluminium silicon alloy
body. The first Advocate was introduced in 1950. It is a
35 mm. camera with a Dallmeyer f/4.5 35 mm. lens - an
unusually wide angle - and a four speed shutter with no
flash synchronisation. In 1950, it cost £15 15s. An
improved version, the Advocate II, was introduced in
1953. The fastest shutter speed is increased from 1/150
to 1/200 and the shutter is flash synchronised. It has a
Dallmeyer f/3.5 35 mm. lens. The camera cost £18
15s. Variants of the Advocate include one with a Wray
Lustrar 35 mm. f/3.5 lens and, reputedly, one with a Ross
f/3.5 lens. Although a very nice camera to use - and very
eye-catching - the wide angle of the lens makes this a
very unflattering camera for portraits.

Ensign is one of
the major British camera makers, responsible for a number
of still and cine cameras including the Kinecam, the
Pockette and the Multex. The
Multex
is often regarded as the first British precision camera.
It was introduced in 1936 as a 'miniature' camera but
unlike the German 'miniature' cameras, the Multex uses
127 film. It takes 14 pictures, 3 cm. x 4 cm. on a 127
roll-film. The Multex has a coupled rangefinder. The
Multex I was fitted with the Ensign Ensar f/3.5 lens in a
shutter speeded to 1/500. An optical viewfinder on the
top plate is collapsible. The camera is finished in black
enamel, nickel plate and grained leather. The Multex II
has an enclosed optical finder and the shutter is speeded
to 1/1000. The camera is finished in lustre chrome and
leather. Lenses for the Multex II include the Ensign
Multar f/3.5 and the Sonnar f/2. In 1937 the Multex I
with Ensar lens cost £16 16s. The most expensive
Multex, the Multex II with Sonnar f/2 lens, cost
£40.

Agilux made the
Agiflex, a copy of the Reflex Korelle, but the cameras
which I prefer have their own design quirks. One of these
is the
Agimatic,
introduced at the 1957 Photokina. This is a 35 mm. camera
with built-in uncoupled rangefinder and extinction meter.
It has a four element Agilux 45 mm. f/2.8 lens with a
nine speed, flash synchronised shutter. The shutter
release is unusual in that the same lever also operates
the wind-on and sets the shutter. Thus, the camera can be
operated very rapidly and, indeed, was marketed as a
rival to the clockwork drive cameras then becoming
popular. It cost £24 17s. when new. The
Agima
was introduced in 1960 and is a later version of the
Agimatic, with coupled rangefinder and brightline
viewfinder. It does not have an extinction meter. It cost
the same as the Agimatic.

I am particularly
fond of Kershaw cameras as they were made in Leeds, about
twenty miles from our shop. Kershaw named most of their
cameras after birds. The
Curlew
and
Peregrine
were introduced in about 1948 although supplies were
limited. The Curlew cameras take 8 pictures on 120
roll-film, while the Peregrine cameras take 12 exposures
on 120. Both cameras have folding fronts with
side-hinges.

There is not a lot of information
readily available about these cameras but the pre-launch
specifications of the cameras were as follows.

The Peregrine I was expected to have a
Kershaw f/4.5 lens in an unsynchronised eight speed
shutter and to cost about £25 including purchase
tax. The Peregrine II was to have a Taylor Hobson f/3.5
lens in Talykron nine speed synchronised shutter and to
cost about £44. The top of the range camera was the
Peregrine III, with Taylor Hobson f/2.9 lens in Talykron
nine speed synchronised shutter with coupled rangefinder,
costing about £70.

The Curlew I was expected to have a
Kershaw f/6.3 lens in a four speed unsynchronised shutter
and to cost about £17. Unusually for this time, the
Curlew I was to have no double exposure prevention
interlock. The Curlew II was to have a Kershaw f/4.5 lens
in an eight speed unsynchronised shutter and to cost
about £25, while the top of the range Curlew III was
to have a Taylor Hobson f/3.5 lens in Talykron nine speed
synchronised shutter, costing about £47.

The company announced dates when these
cameras were expected to be available, ranging from March
1948 (the Curlew I) through to October 1948 (the
Peregrine III) but they also made it plain that these
dates were for initial production runs and that supplies
would be limited. By 1950 the range had been discontinued
and some estimates of production numbers are as low as
200 (a figure I feel to be unlikely).

It is the case that all of these
cameras are unusual while the Curlew III and Peregrine
III cameras are very rare.
The above are all synopses of longer articles which have
been published in Classic Camera Magazine, in some cases
with additional material included here. The Advocate
features in issue number 14, the Ensign Multex in issue
number 2, the Agimatic and Agima are in issue number 4
and the Kershaw Curlew and Peregrine cameras are in issue
number 1.

Other British cameras featured in
Classic Camera Magazine include:-

the Agiflex cameras (issue number
30)

the Compass camera (issue number
21 - short piece only)

Coronet 9.5 mm. cine cameras
(issue number 18)

Dallmeyer camera (issue number
22)

Dekko 9.5 mm. cine camera (issue
number 20)

Ensign Autorange cameras (issue
number 32)

Ensign Selfix cameras (issue
number 12)

Purma Special and Purma Speed
(issue number 33)

Wrayflex (issue number
28)

Note: I like to give price information in both
sterling and American dollars. However, this information
is not always available to me, in which case I use
whichever I can get. I do not convert from one currency
to the other; market conditions vary and camera prices
were often very different in the U.S.A. and Britain, so
conversion would not give an accurate picture.